


To catch a fish

by sometimes_i_english



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, M/M, and it's not even THAT graphic, he just masturbates once, i'm sorry for leading you on, not exactly explicit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 00:13:17
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1568978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sometimes_i_english/pseuds/sometimes_i_english
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles is a merman, Scott leads a group of environmentalists who try to take down Hale Fisheries owned by Peter Hale, Derek is secretly working with Scott to bring down his uncle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	To catch a fish

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! so, this is me trying to get back into writing, I haven't written anything in about a year so I'm a bit rusty, I apologize for that and hopefully this isn't too terrible.
> 
> For this fic I've taken a lot of liberties where it comes to merpeople mythology, like when Stiles is a human he'd need to be completely submerged into water to turn back into a merman, so he'd be able to take showers but not baths, or stand in the rain but not go swimming.
> 
> Also for the ages, Stiles is 23, Scott is 25 as are the others, except Allison who's 26 and Derek who is 27.
> 
> I'm not using all of the Teen Wolf characters we know because this is focused mainly on Stiles and I didn't think I could develop them properly yet. Actually the whole story could've been expanded more and better but, like I said, haven't written in a year and kinda rusty :(
> 
> Anyways! I hope you sort of enjoy it!

Loud. Out there it was nothing but loud. All those people yelling, running through their schedules as if they were to live forever without living a day at all. It was depressing.

Stiles preferred the quietness of down here, were everything was tinted blue and green and colours not yet named. Where the sun barely shone and the sound didn’t scream but tingled, reverberating like a caress over his skin rather than booming drums in his ears.

 _Yes_ , Stiles thought, _here is so much better, here is where I belong_.

And so he sank. He dived and swam and floated around, no care around himself but his duties in the colony. It was an easy existence, a peaceful one, until it wasn’t.

The first time he saw a plastic bag he felt curious, he touched it and prodded it but nothing came out; it just stayed there, like it wasn’t alive, so Stiles let it be.

The second time he saw a plastic bag, a dolphin had swallowed it and suffocated.

If merpeople could cry, his tears and wails would’ve been heard throughout the vast ocean.

And that was that. He convinced his father to let him bury the dolphin and life went on.

Weeks later, when going to the surface and see the sun, Stiles found a seagull with a strange plastic circle around his head, even stranger were the other five circles attached. He tried taking it off but the bird squealed as in pain and flew away.

Stiles knew the sea like he knew himself, it was his home after all, and day after day he found it more and more deserted. Dirt and what he had come to know was human garbage kept collecting on the shores; coral reefs turned white and the big fishes that once swam free disappeared.

The sea was sick.

He could feel it, because he felt sick too.

“It’s those damn humans” his father repeated “they just don’t know how to take care of our world” he sighed, maybe an apology for those same humans.

Stiles knew that sigh wasn’t going to bring species back, wasn’t going to cure his ocean more than sitting around would.

So he swam, he swam and swam until his fin got tired and his arms burned; yet he didn’t stop. He found boats, not small boats like he’d seen in the past or wooden boats from when women were thrown off them, but big metal monster with jaws like sharks and teeth like death.

He saw threaded blankets of tremendous size descend and trap everything in their wake, not sparing animal or plant lives, neither rocks nor sand were safe. It was a nightmare, he felt the cries of every one of his neighbours in that net.

And then, arrows like thunder came down, each heavy with intent; piercing life in the middle and ripping blood rivers that flowed free; but not even sharks would come close, for they also had seen and flew in terror.

Only to be caught further east, have their fin cut and then left to drown in the same water that once protected them.

It made him angry, it made him more than angry.

He’d heard the legends, never tried it before, but maybe…just maybe.

Miles away from his colony, on a small beach where no human could reach, Stiles dragged himself out of the water, his tail weighing him down on dry land. The sun was high and soon enough he could see the ever-present droplets of water on his body disappear; as did his tail.

 It didn’t go away in a flash of light or all at once, it was actually quite painful, the feel of his scales diluting into skin and his cartilage turn into bone as it separated into two human legs. Sobs escaped his lips as this went on, not only his lower body changed, but his whole body transformed. His once limb and flexible torso became tough and unyielding, his bones wouldn’t turn the way they used to and his back wouldn’t arch as far as he commanded it to.

He’d seen humans before, he’d seen enough of them in his opinion.

Really, if those stupid humans killing his sea could do it, how hard could it be to walk on two legs?

After an incredibly long time, with sweat dripping down his forehead (and wow, he’d never sweated before, that was interesting) Stiles had finally managed to stand a walk a bit more like those humans did.

“Shit” he said, his voice was…odd maybe, he’d never really tried to say anything when his head was out of the water and, briefly, he wondered if it would sound the same on his other form. However, he had no more time to ponder on it, the sun was starting to bleed red and he needed to go back.

Looking at the dark blue water a shiver ran through him, would he experience the same kind of pain every time he wanted to change?

Even when he’d rather not do it, there was only one way for him to find out, so he plunged into the sea. Surprisingly, changing back wasn’t as painful, soothing even, as if his body recognized being a home rather than a structure. It still took some time and when he could swim back it was already night.

He couldn’t tell his dad what he was doing, what he was thinking, _he_ wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. For days he escaped to his private shore to change and practice walking and talking. After a week he had either become used to the pain or the change had become less painful.

There was also a strange appendix attached to his body, between his legs, Stiles thought it looked odd. Pinker than the rest of his pale skin and flaccid like a dead fish. It was also a bit uncomfortable when he attempted to run, moving from one side to the other and flopping about. The weirdest part though, came one afternoon, when, after exercising for his usual amount of time he just sat on the sand and decided to prod and study the thing.

When all his attention was on it, he grabbed it and turned it, it was no different than a piece of flesh. Useless and just there. So he pulled on it, a light sting of pleasure was sent to his brain and he did it again with more purpose; slowly the prop turned hard and its color was darker. He circled his finger around it, running his hand up and down; quick intakes of air unfilled his lungs as his throat clogged with moans.

Stiles felt a strange coil of nerves in his stomach way to quick, a pull on the base where two balls hanged and, too sudden, he was coming; long stripes of white stained his chest and his thighs, leaving him out of breath.

“Wow” he breathed “so _that’s_ what this does”

**2 years later**

There was the usual buzz and excitement preceding a march in the office, Stiles himself couldn’t help but wring his hands and move around in anticipation; they’ve been preparing this one for months and it was finally time to do it.

“Stiles!” came a hiss from his right, a big and warm hand closing around his own to calm him a little

“Sorry” he said, yet he smiled big and bright, his fingers tightening in their hold “are you sure you can’t come?”

Derek looked at him sadly and just sighed his mirrored disappointment. “I’m sorry” he whispered

“Hey, it’s fine, it’d just be fun to finally see you yelling and throwing stones” Stiles teased, but Derek just levelled him with a look

“You know that’s not the kind of marches and strikes we do”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever you say McCall” he got a shove on the shoulder for that but just walked away laughing.

It’d been a year since Stiles started living on the surface, it had been hard, from people who wouldn’t help their own mother to greedy one who would only help when there was something in it for them. He’d roamed the streets and around the beach for about a week before Scott McCall found him.

With his experience treating humans the past few days, Stiles was wary of Scott but after a good talk and the sincerity the guy exuded Stiles let go and went with him. Scott took him to the McCall household, where he met Melissa, Scott’s mother, and Allison, Scott’s fiancé. From what they talked they were around the same human age, Scott was 25 and Stiles was 23, even with those two years they got along from the get got.

Somehow he couldn’t tell anyone what he really was, it was too dangerous, and dodging questions wasn’t easy as merpeople couldn’t exactly lie, but Stiles was smart and walking around the truth became second nature after a while.

Even when Scott revealed that he, Allison and some friends lead an environmental group set to stop Hale fisheries, Stiles didn’t budge, he did join their group and thanked Poseidon wherever he was for his good fortune.

From what he heard and read, Hale Fisheries was _the_ giant when it came to seafood. They did everything, from Bluefin tuna to canned tuna and whatever was in between, their fleet of boats was ten times what was advisable to keep a sustainable fishing rate if they were the only ones fishing. Since it had been founded by Peter Hale and, for almost two decades they had been driving small fisheries and safe environments in small cities to nothing with their greed.

He met the rest of Scott’s group of friends later on, during gatherings that concerned their group or just for shits and giggles. Boyd and Erica were likeable enough, even when Erica liked pinching his cheeks and making fun of him; Lydia reminded him of the beauty and wise of mermaids of old tales; Jackson was an asshole (not in the literal sense but rather in how he was very rude) and Isaac, well, Stiles still had his reservations with him. Even when it was him that helped him get a job in the same coffee shop he worked in, a small but pretty place where students got their nerves wrecked while cramming or reading.

Meeting Derek wasn’t smooth or easy, the man was anything but easy. But his eyes, his eyes reminded Stiles of his ocean, of the life he had to leave behind, a bittersweet melancholy of knowing he was doing the right thing and the sadness of leaving his home.

Derek was Scott’s brother, they didn’t share a mom but they shared a strange bond that sometimes Stiles didn’t understand, he wasn’t sure anyone really understood. When they met Stiles had been talking about fish, their lives and their environment and their food, everybody had just sort of assumed that Stiles was really obsessed with sea life and left it at that. In comes Derek, with his ocean filled eyes and so much knowledge on sea life, enough to challenge Stiles and everything he thought he knew. The way their conversations went from quiet to frantic in an attempt to exchange information as fast as possible thrilled Stiles, Derek was like no one he’d ever met before. Every single one of them was like no one he’d ever met before.

But Derek felt different.

Apparently nobody knew his last name, and apparently nobody bothered to ask, just like nobody bothered to investigate Stiles.

“Who cares?” said Erica “he has someone inside Hale Fisheries and his face helps when we’re recruiting”

Which was a lie, because Derek went to their meetings, and Derek gave a lot of information, put in a million ideas that were actually good; but he never showed up in public.

Whenever Stiles asked him to go, he looked apologetic, even remorseful as he declined. Stiles always ignored the swoop of disappointment in his gut. Sometimes he found Derek and Scott discussing things in hushed tones, secrets not even Allison was invited to share.

“They’ll tell us on time” Lydia said quietly, somehow Stiles thought she already knew whatever happened between those two and, yet again, reminded him of the wise of old age.

Life became a bit of a routine living at the McCall’s. Work in the morning, except on Sundays, then meetings three times a week. Thank Poseidon Stiles learnt to read, he filled the corners of his days with books and books, the library was a place that fascinated him with his million words to form infinite stories.

“You seem to read a lot” Derek said as he dropped some books on Stiles lap.

“You seem to notice a lot” he snapped back, but there was a grateful smile around his voice, Derek shrugged nonchalantly but a stain of pink colored high on his cheeks.

A month, two months, three months, half a year and Stiles’ skin began to itch with his need for the sea. However he had managed to live on the surface without swimming for so long was beyond him, but he could notice how his voice cracked sometimes, how his eyes would fill with mist and a small breeze would shake him.

Nobody could now.

So he snuck out after work, when the sun was still high on the sky and sounds could melt within each other. It wasn’t surprising for him to not go straight home after work and no one would really care.

Stiles walked for a long time along the beach, until he found a secluded place behind some rocks he had to climb. There he undressed in a hurry, leaving his clothes on a pile at his feet and almost running towards the foaming water. But right at the edge he stopped, it was terrifying, after so long the sea was terrifying.

Not…not the sea exactly, but the idea of going without it for so long, how would it feel then? How did it feel before? Did he still remember how to use his tail?

A small wave caught Stiles’ toes and the relief was instant, the water mesmerized him and sang to him in a voice vaguely familiar, a song a lot like home. So he dived and swam, not caring for the ache in his bones and muscles as they changed.

He felt so free.

Weightless and alone in a big blue canvas.

He wanted to swim home and see his dad, he wanted it so badly, but he also knew time wasn’t enough. So he consoled himself with twisting his merman body in ways his human one couldn’t yet, with breathing the salty water his humans lungs couldn’t stand, with drinking in the sunlight filtered by the waves. When he came out the sun had already set and he still needed to wait until he was completely dry to be able to walk again.

Going for a swim once a week or twice a month came to be part of his routine after that. Nobody asked where he went or what he did.

Well, maybe Scott, but he knew when to leave it after Stiles just didn’t answer or simply said he couldn’t say. He wasn’t lying.

Life went on.

They reached to people, they organized walks and made information available.

After eight months of Stiles being there Derek came in showing how Hale’s sales had dropped by about 10%, to Stiles that wasn’t enough, but the others rejoiced in the idea of managing something. Of course it wasn’t only them, there were several organizations that constantly worked for the sake of their environment, but theirs was the only one fixated on Hale Fisheries as their main project.

“Why are you so interested in Hale Fisheries and not in other ones?” Stiles asked Scott one day

Scott looked pensive for a while before levelling Stiles with a cautious look “sorry, but you’ll have to ask Derek about that one”

“What? Why Derek?” he was confused “I thought you were the leader of the group, isn’t that why they call you ‘Alpha’?”

Scott laughed good naturedly. “Yeah, something like that, but Derek’s a bit older and he knows more about businesses and how they work, so we put our talents together and work more like a democracy than just whatever Scott says” he smiled.

After so many months with them, after the friendship he’d found in Scott and every other one of them, it made sense; it was true. Stiles had to blush at his own stupidity.

“Plus” added Scott “Derek really loves the ocean”

And yeah, _that_ was definitely true. Stiles had seen it, in the hunger behind Derek’s eyes to know more and more about the sea, in the interest he tried to hide whenever Stiles talked, in the amount of books about sea creatures Stiles had found in Derek’s apartment, in every single mannerism the man showed. Derek really loved the sea.

A thrill rolled up Stiles’ spine at the thought of him and he felt his cheeks grow hot. It wasn’t exactly surprising, Derek and he were friends; yet even when Stiles would call Scott his best friend, Derek was the one he trusted the most, maybe because of their shared love for his former home, maybe because their personalities clashed so perfectly they became puzzle pieces meant to fit, whatever it was, Derek always managed to make feelings grow inside Stiles.

At least feelings that were stronger than those towards the others.

Two years passed and there was Stiles, giving away pamphlets to whoever was walking around and wearing a blue shirt with their logo on it. The weather was hot and the sun was high, there was no possibility of rain and Hale’s sales had dropped another 10% in their last quarter. All in all, it was the best day for a walk they could have.

Erica and Isaac were manning the water containers, Boyd was somewhere telling people to be safe, Lydia and Allison were handling the kids and Jackson, Jackson was nowhere to be seen. How typical.

“Ok everybody!” Scott’s voice resonated through the speakers “We’re going to start in about five minutes, remember the safety measures, volunteers have been given a big carne you’ll be able to spot easily if someone needs help. Let’s get ready and do this!”

The crowd erupted in applauses and cheers as everyone moved to where the walk was going to start.

“Hey” a guy in sunglasses and a cap said

“Hi” Stiles waved back

“Can I have one of those?” the stranger said

“Um, sure” he answered giving one but the man grabbed his hand and wouldn’t let go, even when Stiles pulled forcefully “Sir. Please. Let. Go” he panted

The man smirked and…oh….Stiles knew that smirk

“You asshole” he finally pulled his hand back and punched Derek’s shoulder “I thought you weren’t coming!”

Derek was smiling big and bright then. “Yeah? Guess I changed my mind”

“Aww shucks” Stiles bemoaned “And here I was hoping to be rid of you for a day”

Derek clucked his tongue at that. “Sucks to be you then” before turning on his heels and walking towards the concentration of people.

Stiles just laughed loudly before following and setting next to him.

“Want me to hold your hand as we cross the street?” Derek teased

“Please” Stiles scoffed “you’re only looking for an excuse to hold my hand”

They both tried to smirk at the other but failed miserably as all they did was smile warmly. A horn blasted to their left, breaking the moment and leaving them with a strange feeling of incompleteness and nervousness.

The three miles they had planned to walk passed in a blur for Stiles, in no time they were standing in front of Hale’s main offices, screaming and making noise to be noticed.

And noticed they were.

Not even five minutes had gone by when the doors leading to a balcony on the third floor opened, a man in a suit walked out followed by two more and then, then Peter Hale himself was standing in front of the mass of people. An insolent smile decorated his lips and, next to him, Stiles felt Derek tense up and stay that way, moving nervously as if wanting to leave.

“Well, hello” Peter said, his voice was sultry and his tone teasing, it made Stiles’ blood boil “I didn’t really expect so many of you today”

The crowd murmured something back, someone in the front yelled something colourful and the people around laughed their assent.

“Now that’s not very nice” Peter chided “what is nice though!” he perked up, smile like a predator, the one of someone who has the winning card and already knows it “is my nephew showing up here of all places after missing his very important job as a member of the board of directors”

Peter was still smiling, but his voice had grown cold and hard, suddenly the sun wasn’t shining as bright and a small chill ran through the quiet murmurs of “ _who?_ ” coming from the crowd. Stiles himself turned to ask Derek when he saw the man had gone pale and his breathing was ragged, yet his chest was puffed and he no longer wore the cap and the sunglasses he wore the whole walk.

“All those years, here I was Derek, wondering if you were going through some rebellious face, if you were doing drugs, if you were ever going to get your life straight” the man drawled.

 _Derek_ , that man had said Derek, but no, there were many Dereks, there was no reason _his_ Derek was Peter’s Derek. Thoughts rolled and swirled in Stiles’ mind as the Derek besides him moved to stand taller.

“So” he yelled back, heads turned towards him “you figured it out, now what? Uncle of mine” he leered, his hands shook as his voice raised and Stiles wanted so badly to take one in his and anchor him, but all that kept running through his mind is how lied he’d been to.

 _You haven’t told them what you are either_ , his brain supplied, _it’s different_ , he answered, _you haven’t even asked him for an explanation_.

And that was that for his thoughts were shut by the angry roars of the crowd as they tried to get to Derek.

“Settle!” Peter bellowed “I’m not done yet” he smiled indulgently, surprisingly, the people quieted and stood in attention.

“I still can’t wrap my head around this whole matter Derek, I give you a hom-“

“A HOUSE! YOU GAVE ME A HOUSE! NEVER A HOME!”

“A _roof_ over your scrawny head after your parents-“

“DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MY PARENTS”

“FINE!” the man roared “I give you a house, food, clothes and make you an important member of the empire I’ve built”

“WITH THE INSURANCE MONEY THAT BELONGED TO ME AND YOU TOOK!” Derek was shaking then, his paleness traded for an angry red that stained his whole face, neck and whatever visible of his chest through his white t-shirt, the people around them were quiet, had stopped moving and looked at Derek with respect instead of betrayal; it was only Stiles who held the betrayal close to his chest as nephew and uncle conversed.

“Oh shut up nephew” Peter laughed “as if a child like you would’ve been able to manage it”

“I would’ve definitely managed it better than you” Derek spat “at least I wouldn’t have set an example on how to destroy the environment despite constant warning”

“Ugh” Peter rolled his eyes, maybe a family thing since Derek did it a lot around them “Are you still hung up on that environmental thing of yours?”

“Enough!” someone yelled from the front, a quick look and Stiles realized it had been Scott

“You don’t get to tell me what to do kid” Peter said in a disgustingly sweet tone

“I meant we have enough footage to land you on jail, idiot” Scott laughed and the crowd joined at Peter’s flabbergasted expression, the man had clearly forgotten where he was when Derek had decided to speak up.

People were closing on them again, patting Derek’s back and asking to listen to his side of the story, yet Stiles slipped out, he didn’t want to be there anymore.

Derek belonged to the people who had turned his sea into a dumpster, who had ran the fishes living there to near extinction; Derek had lied.

And Stiles couldn’t be there.

So he ran and ran and stole a bike and rode until he found himself on the beach, in that small and secluded place that had turned into his escape. Taking off his clothes had never been such a priority for him as in that moment, as he stood there, naked and chilled to the bone, he looked back and hoped he could find the strength to go back and see the excitement in his friends’ faces at whatever resulted from what had happened that afternoon; because Stiles was sure that Hale Fisheries wouldn’t have a president after that day and, hopefully, no business either.

But right in that moment, Stiles needed to be away, his feelings were a jumbled mess of the happiness over their achievement and the suction of what felt like a betrayal from the one he trusted the most.

So again he dived, and this time he swam home.

The trip felt so long, like the waters he was traveling through were strangers against the streets he’d gotten so used to walk, but he knew, he _knew_ this sea was his original home.

The first person he saw was his dad, the same as before he left, young for his age and energetic as he took care of the people in their colony. Stiles resumed his duties as a merman and life kept going as if he had never been gone.

Some weeks went by and, Stiles knew logically that it was too early to see any change in their environment, but his irrationality couldn’t help but be disappointment at the slowness of it all. Neither could part of his brain but miss his friends from the surface, from feeling guilt over the way he’d just taken off, from missing Derek.

“This is bullshit” he muttered to himself

“What’s bullshit?” his dad asked from his chamber’s entrance

But Stiles couldn’t tell him, fuck, he’d gone and fallen for a human, a _human_. And then that human had forgotten to tell Stiles a huge part of himself and Stiles had gone and felt hurt and just ran away and then weeks just went by and before anyone knew better two months and half had been gone and it was too late to go back.

“Maybe you should go back up” sighed his dad

“What?”

“Stiles” the older merman swam closer to his son “you are far too smart to stay down here, I can see it in your eyes, how much you enjoyed being there and how much you learnt on the surface; the longing for whoever you met” he levelled Stiles with a knowing look and he had to turn his face away.

“But it’s been so long” he whined

“Better late than ever son”

“But you-“

“I’ll be fine, I’ll still be here whenever you want to come back”

Once Stiles had pitied creatures of the surface for the way their eyes leaked whenever they became overwhelmed by emotions, yet at that precise moment, he only envied them. Instead, he hugged his dad and prepared himself for the journey back out.

Unlike the time he swam to run away, this time the water surrounding him felt safe and welcoming, like a well-loved piece of clothing. It was exhilarating, the thought of going back, of seeing everyone again; he’d have to apologize, but it was worth it.

The clothes he’d worn that day were still on the shore, but so was something else.

Derek was there.

“Hi” he said

Stiles was stunned into silence, the urge to flee taking his body so he turned his head and

“I’ve known you’re a merman for months now”

“What?!” Stiles rasped

“Sorry” Derek quickly apologized “I saw you once coming to the beach and I followed you to spend some time together, but then you got naked and ran to the water and your tail Stiles” the man looked at him with such reverie, it was unnerving “you’re beautiful”

Derek’s words made Stiles deflate, merpeople hadn’t had contact with humans in so long he wasn’t sure if the legends of mermaids being alluring to men were true, the one where his tail transformed into legs turned to be after all; and though he was a male and not a female it could also happen.

“Thanks” he managed as he pulled himself out of the water and onto the sun hot sand, he hadn’t even noticed it appeared to only be noon from the shock.

Derek looked at him with exasperation before walking to sit next to him, the heat of his body and the familiarity of it was already comforting.

“My parents drowned when I was 10”

Yeah, not such a good ice breaker

“Sorry, just” Derek breathed hard once, twice and went on “my family has always been, um, affluent. When I was ten, my parents, my sisters and I went on a short vacation in our yacht; we were sailing a little further from where we usually would, but the weather was amazing and the boat was in good conditions so we kept going. Somewhere along the way, when the shore was barely a line of white, something went wrong with our motor and we sank. There were lifesaver vests on board, but with the panic that overtook us, well” Stiles skin was drying out and his bones began to creak, but his attention was with Derek, with the sole idea of never having met him and the awful emptiness that left him “my parents had been in the captain’s cabin, they got out and ran to get my sisters who were in the downstairs bedrooms; by the time they got them out it was too late and they all sank. I was on deck at the time and that’s probably the only reason I didn’t sink too”

“You don’t have to tell me this” Stiles said, his legs were there and he was naked but none of that mattered as Derek looked him straight in the eye and nodded as if he knew, yet his mouthed opened to continue.

“Still, I was a child, my sense of direction was fucked up and I was crying in distress for my parents, looking down and around, waiting for them to resurface. I’m still not sure how much time I kept myself afloat waiting for them, but fatigue beat me and my eyelids closed and my whole body went numb with exertion, I felt myself sink; and then” he perked up “then a miracle happened, someone grabbed me and pulled me up, something, some _one_ swam with me in their arms to the shore” Derek was smiling brightly at Stiles then “and I thought it was a mermaid, it _had_ to be a mermaid, but I was a kid and you know a child’s memories cannot be trusted; yet I fell in love with the ocean and whatever lives in it”

“How can you love the sea so much after it took away your family?” a frown had formed on Stiles’ face, whatever Derek said, it made no sense whatsoever.

“No” he moved his head from side to side “the ocean didn’t take anything from me, someone, Peter, messed up the boat so he could get my parents’ money; he never counted with me surviving, the money is the only reason he kept me in the company. The ocean didn’t steal anything from me, no, it helped me when I was in trouble and kept me alive. I am forever indebted to it.”

Silence filled their shore, the sounds of the waves and people playing in the distance filling where their voices had stopped.

“Ok” said Stiles “Why didn’t you tell us who you were from the beginning? Didn’t you trust us?”

Something akin to sadness marred Derek’s handsome face. “Of course I trust you, every single one of you, but the only ones who knew were Scott and Melissa; well, the ones I told, apparently Lydia knew too” he squinted into the distance and Stiles snorted in amusement, leave Lydia to know everything “I just” Derek sighed “I thought it’d be safer for all of you not to know who I really was”

Anger filled Stiles again at those words. “Safer?” he hissed between clenched teeth “safer than what? Safe from what?”

He stood up then, Derek’s eyes going wide as he took on his naked state, Stiles didn’t really care; he reached for the overheated shorts from so long ago and tugged them on with some effort. The stiff fabric scratched his skin but he kept going, pacing and ranting as his arms and body moved with his emotions.

“Stiles!” Derek called “hey! Hey! Hey! Listen to me” he was breathing hard now, like looking at Stiles was tiring him or made it difficult to suck air into his lungs “I’m sorry you found out how you did, ok? And I’m sorry you couldn’t handle it and just ran away” and wow, that stung, it was true…that only made it sting more “but I’m not sorry I thought it was the best option I had, what if one of you had slipped and said you know me? What if someone from the company had found out? What if they had used any of you-what if they had used _you_ \- as leverage against my actions? Stiles, you need to understand, I was working against my uncle’s company, one of the biggest and most powerful enterprises in California. You know the kind of political power his money can and has bought. The only reason you were safe is because Peter is too full of himself and didn’t deem our group be investigated thoroughly enough” Stiles was stunned in silence, there were so many things he wanted to say, but his thought were jumbled in a knot of fine string and putting them in order was hard.

“I told you I knew you’re a merman because I followed you-“

“Like the creep you are” Stiles snorted fondly

“Yeah” Derek laughed “Imagine if they had known you were, you _are_ important to me and they had been the ones to follow you”

And…yeah, it kind of made sense then.

“There could’ve been better ways to do it” Stiles murmured half heartedly

“Yeah”

They stayed in silence for a while, letting the breeze of an early afternoon take away whatever altercate could’ve happened there.

“You want a ride back?...or…are you swimming back?” Derek smirked from where he was already climbing rocks and heading to the parking lot some length away.

“Well, since you offered so nicely” he bit back “what were you even doing here?” he asked as he finished climbing and came face to face with Derek’s retreating form and an attractive blush blooming on the man’s neck.

Really, Stiles shouldn’t be so excited out of being able to make a 27-year-old blush.

“I” Derek cleared his throat “I came to say goodbye”

“What?” a cold dread started to spread through Stiles body “why goodbye?”

“After, you know, after things settled down we all went back to Scott’s but you weren’t there. At first we thought you’d just go on an errand or something, but night went by and the next day and three days more and a week passed in the haste of closing Hale Fisheries and putting Peter in jail, he managed to pull connections and managed to escape to Switzerland but we’re following his movements, anyways, after that week we just assumed you’d gone back the way you came” Derek shrugged, sagging his shoulders in a resigned manner “But I knew, I knew and I couldn’t tell anyone because it was your life and you-and I-and”

“I’m sorry too” Stiles said

Derek just turned back to look at him, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Yeah”

“Yeah, I could’ve handled it better”

“Yeah, you could have”

“Ok, don’t be an asshole, I’m actually trying to apologize here”

“Ok” Derek laughed and Stiles just knew, that voice, the voice that sounded more like home than that ocean of his, was Derek’s.

“Oh”

“Oh what?”

Stiles just walked forward, a determined set to his steps, planted himself close, closer, closer to Derek, leaned forward and pressed a kiss to his lips.

It wasn’t like what they liked to tell them, his body didn’t alit and his weigh didn’t recede to let him float, there weren’t fireworks but the same sounds of the beach behind them. It was the awkward bump of their noses and the burn of teeth clicking against each other mixed with the newness of Derek’s soft lips and how Stiles felt the man smile against his own. It was Derek’s hands coming to hold his waist and run through the short curls of his nape.

Ah

There it was, not the fireworks or the floating or any of those tales; but Derek, just Derek and him.

And it was more than any of those tales.


End file.
